Not too long ago, it seemed that almost every member of the West Virginia Senate and House of Delegates talked about the importance of local control, over things like county budgets and land use. After Republicans took control of the Legislature, some politicians — even a delegate from the Eastern Panhandle — changed parties to join the Republicans. They also changed their tunes on local control.

Now, we are seeing how this power grab to take local control from our communities is playing out. During the 2021 session, the majority Republican Legislature decided to put a constitutional amendment on the 2022 ballot to strip counties and municipalities of their ability to control their local budgets. This Amendment 2 would give the Legislature, not our local county commissions, the sole power to decide what personal property would be taxed and at what rates it would be taxed. The stated goal of this amendment was to eliminate personal property taxes on some business properties, using the same formula for all communities statewide.

This is a bad idea. The result would be a statewide decrease of property tax income of about $515 million, which is 27 percent of the total property tax revenue of the state. In the Eastern Panhandle, we have much higher populations than more rural counties in other parts of the state. If this amendment passes, we won’t have the funds for basic needs like water and sewer infrastructure, or services such as police, fire departments and schools. To meet the unique needs and problems of our area, our local officials must be able to raise the necessary revenue to help keep our way of life. This “one-size fits all” approach, proposed by the Legislature, will not work for us and will take away our freedom to decide what is best for our communities. Amendment 2 must be defeated.

In 2022, the state legislature tried to take away local government control to decide how land would be used. A bill was proposed, which would have taken away the freedom to decide where certain energy producing companies could place their facilities. This was just the first attempt to keep our local government from having any control, giving the control to landowners who don’t necessarily care how their property use impacts the community. We have Senator Hannah Geffert to thank for helping to defeat this bill. Because of her opposition to it, along with the help of others, the bill did not pass, and we were spared from this power grab.

We need legislators like Senator Hannah Geffert now more than ever before. She understands the value of local decision making. It is the people living in the community know what is best. It is our home. We know what we want and don’t want. It is us, not bureaucrats in Charleston, who should decide what our local government invests in.

I urge you to vote for your community this November. We need to keep Senator Hannah Geffert in office to help us preserve our communities and our freedom.

Lisa Payne, of Harpers Ferry